Bridge Over Fancy Waters: Marina’s SRO Sued in City Atty’s Suit

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Your building is infested with rodents, bed-bug, and cockroaches. You walk over deteriorating concrete and “befouled” carpeting, and don’t have access to permanent electrical wiring. Also, you witness (if you do not participate in) continual arrests and violent crimes within the building. The managers refuse to respond to notices of violation from city departments, and the neighbors pretty much hate you.

Congratulations, you live in the Bridge Motel, an SRO whose management is beingsued by the City Attorney in a civil suit. With across the board health and safety problems, an “egregious pattern” of crime, and 91 calls to the police in the past 7 months regarding the Bridge all listed in the suit, this residential motel is on the City Attorney’s shit list. The short one, which is Sharpie’d onto his desk and then crossed off with a knife. 1) Close down the Bridge. 2) Avenge true love’s death at the hands of the Joker.

But in seriousness, sources tell us that this is not merely a result of an SRO existing in the Marina, and that the city has sued SRO’s outside of the Marina in the past. It would be tempting to think (perhaps if you were into hating on the Marina) that Marina-ites would be especially uncharitable at the sight of trash being dumped out of windows and hypodermic needles being discarded in adjacent lots. We’ve also been told that a lot of complaints have come from passersby, not just tenants. But from what we can tell, the Bridge has been around a while and its category spanning violations and disturbances have brought on the investigation.

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Greg Dewar

I find it amazing that in this day and age, when real estate in this town exploded in the 90s and early 2000s, that a craptacular SRO would still exist in the Marina. I mean, surely the land alone is worth a fortune. Why would anyone keep a shitbox SRO, and not just sell it and make a big wad of cash, to someone who’d mow it down and make something out of it?

Oh wait, there’s like regulations and stuff. Still, it’s mind blowing that even now, Depression 2.0 and all, that there’d be a shitbox SRO in the Marina. THE MARINA, PEOPLE!

I remember driving past this place when I used to commute over the bridget and just wonder wtf?

dantsea

Why would anyone keep a shitbox SRO, and not just sell it and make a big wad of cash, to someone who’d mow it down and make something out of it?

Why someone can’t unload a building full of tenants in (admittedly horrible) affordable housing is pretty simple to explain.

You can’t sell the place to someone who would upgrade the building because you can’t get rid of the criminal low-rent tenants until they’re good and goddamned ready to leave (or convicted). I think the last time someone tried tearing down a hotel housing poor people because the land was so valuable was the International Hotel in 1977.

That doesn’t explain or excuse the absolute squalor of the place, though. Let’s face it, SROs are never going to be luxury housing, but most of them achieve a minimum standard of cleanliness that this place couldn’t be bothered with.